Masraf

Masraf is a Turkish term meaning expense or expenditure. It denotes the amount of money spent to acquire goods, services, or to maintain operations. The word is used in personal budgeting, business accounting, and public finance, and it underscores cash outlays or outflow of resources. The term derives from Arabic “masraf,” meaning outlay or outflow.

In accounting and budgeting, masraf refers to costs that reduce income. It includes operating expenses such as salaries, utilities, materials, and maintenance, as well as other outlays necessary for business activity. It is distinct from yatırım (investment) and maliyet (cost in a technical sense). In practice, masraf and gider are often used interchangeably, but maliyet is more common in production costing, while masraf may emphasize cash outlays.

Direct masraf (direkt masraf) are costs that can be directly attributed to a product or service, such as raw materials and direct labor. Indirekt masraf (genel giderler) includes overheads like administrative expenses and utilities that support multiple products or functions. In financial reporting, masraf items are typically recorded as operating expenses on the income statement; capital expenditures are usually not treated as masraf for the current period but are capitalized as assets and depreciated over time.

In everyday language, masraf also refers to specific outlays such as travel expenses, colloquially expressed as masraflar. The term remains common in Turkish financial discourse and appears in budgets, invoices, and accounting documents.